Sorry for the Short Delay

Unfortunately, that depends on our systems, and they're keeping it to themselves. It could take a few minutes, but there's a chance it will be longer. We recommend that you check back with us in a few hours, when your title should be available for download in My Library. We appreciate your patience, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Please contact customer service if the problem persists.
(888) 283-5051

Enter Promo Code

See More Like This

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

A problem with the narration

The book itself is well worthy of the name "classic". It is deep, intelligent and moving, and the most impressive thing about it, to me, was the apparent ease with which the author portrays such a complex protagonist and such deep feelings. However, I was only able to reach these conclusions after reading a print version of the book, since in the audiobook I could only barely follow the story.

The problem with the narrator is very simple: his voice is just too deep. He's not an untalented narrator, in that his pronunciation is very clear and he reads without any errors (I think I detected a hint of accent -- South African, perhaps?). However, he reads at such a low pitch that it is very hard to decipher what he's saying. Most of the time it sounds like someone grumbling to himself in another room. This would be a perfect voice for some sort of "mountain-man" in an animated film, but constantly straining to understand the narrator is not what you want in an audiobook.

I bought this version of Death in Venice because it was really inexpensive, and the sample seemed decent enough. After I started it, I found the narration to be excruciatingly awful, and after about an hour of listening in the car, I made up my mind that this audio book had to go! The narrator has a deep, muffled, and throaty voice that simply croaked. He sounds like a heavy smoker whose respiratory system is about to give out at any moment. I decided to call it a loss and to download and listen to the more expensive version. The story itself is great.